Dementia
by Aphonic
Summary: Then I imagine nothing.
1. Introductions of Nothing

Hikari looked around the Digital World. She needed some time to think before returning to Japan. She hadn't seen anyone for so long, besides the dying population of the Other World.  
  
"Hikari?" a familiar voice asked from behind. She turned around to see her brother. His face was full of surprise and puzzlement. "Why are you here?"  
  
Hikari tried to think of an answer but she couldn't lie to Taichi, "I left the Other World because almost everyone is dead. Kurumi, Takeru, and I stayed there to try to stop the man in black from killing the survivors but his work is done. They're all dead."  
  
"I don't understand, Hikari. Where is Takeru and Kurumi?" Taichi asked his little sister who seemed different. She wasn't the same happy and cheerful girl she used to be.  
  
Hikari looked puzzled at the question, "Takeru came back a year after everyone else left. Haven't you seen him?"  
  
Taichi shook his head fiercely, "No. Where is Kurumi?"  
  
Hikari looked down at the ground. Could she admit to Taichi that she caused Kurumi's death? "She died."  
  
"What?" Taichi paused, not wanting to get angry. "Takeru is missing and Kurumi is dead. Could this be any worse?"  
  
Hikari raised her eyebrows at Taichi's last remark, "Why are you here, onii-chan? Where are the others?"  
  
This time, Taichi looked away. "I couldn't stand it. I haven't seen any of the others because they hate me. I allowed Koushiro to die."   
  
Hikari looked at Taichi with as much sympathy she had left but another death didn't phase her much, "What happened?"  
  
"I think it was him," Taichi looked at Hikari. "The man in black. He had that scar."  
  
A scuffling noise was heard behind the two. The siblings turned around and saw a bewildered Sora, "Why am I here?"   
  
"You didn't come here?" Hikari asked. She noticed that her brother had not looked at Sora. "You didn't want to come here?"  
  
Sora shook her head, "No, I have to get back. How do I get back?" Taichi and Hikari both seemed to have no answer for the anxious girl. Sora looked between the two.  
  
"Sora, we haven't seen you for years. Where have you been?" Hikari asked. She regretted asking that single question opens flood gates to why, where, and what in both ways.  
  
Sora looked down and spoke quietly, "I've been in Kyoto."  
  
Hikari nodded, "You left right after the last adventure in the Digital World. What happened?"  
  
Sora looked up at Hikari, "My mother's friend was sick and I had to take care of her apartment," Sora paused, "How about you two? What happened?"  
  
Taichi and Hikari glanced at each other. Taichi started, "I've got some scholarships. And Koushiro was murdered last year."  
  
"What?" Sora gasped, "Koushiro's dead? Is there anything else I should know?"  
  
Hikari nodded, "There's another world that we went to and tried to save from the man in black. Takeru, Kurumi, and I stayed after the others had left. But Takeru left and Kurumi died… We believe the man in black killed Koushiro."  
  
"I don't know who these people are," Sora exclaimed, "Who's Kurumi? Who is this man in black? How do you know he killed Koushiro?"  
  
Hikari looked at Taichi who looked away and continued, "In the Other World, he tried to kill us and before we destroyed him, or so we though, he swore to finish us off. Plus when Kurumi and her group went to the Other World, he tried to kill them. Hana gave him a scar underneath his eye. He was their friend."  
  
"Did he have a name? Besides 'the man in black'?" Sora asked, forcing herself to ask those two simple questions.  
  
"Yeah, his name was Yukito." Hikari answered.  
  
Sora opened her mouth when a voice called from behind them, "Why am I here?"  
  
"Why am I here and how did I get here?"  
  
Taichi, Hikari, and Sora turned around to see Yamato and Mimi. The five old friends looked at each other with astonishment.  
  
"Why are we all here?" Sora asked and looked at the surprised faces. "Why are we here against our will?"  
  
"Who brought-?" Yamato stopped in mid-sentence as the ground beneath them shook. It was as if the ground had turned into an ocean with dangerous waves. There was a deafening noise as the ground split open and the group fell. 


	2. Desperation Nears

"Where am I?" Sora asked and leaned against the wall of the room. She looked around at what looked like her own house.  
  
"Why are we here?" Taichi asked. Sora took in a deep breath, startled from the close voice, and turned to see the boy, "Where is here?"  
  
"Home," Sora answered shortly and started down the hallway. She got to the last door with a sign on the door that read, 'Yurika's Room'. Sora opened the door to see a three-year-old playing with some toys.  
  
Taichi looked over Sora's shoulder as the girl turned around with a bright smile on her face. "Mommy! Want to play?"  
  
Sora nodded. Without a word to Taichi or Yurika, she stepped forward and kneeled down, "What are you playing, Yuri-chan?"  
  
"Who's that, mommy?" Yurika asked and stared at Taichi. Sora looked back at Taichi with a wary smile.  
  
"This is a friend. His name is Taichi," Sora turned to Yurika with a geunine smile, "Taichi, this is my daughter, Yurika."  
  
"Your daughter?" Taichi stammered, "But how?"  
  
Sora continued to look at Yurika, "I left to Kyoto because I was pregnant. I had a boyfriend after Matt who.. he, he," Sora lowered her voice and looked at Tai, "he said he loved me and then he raped me."  
  
"What?" Tai asked, angry at the person he'd never met. He glanced at the carefree girl then at Sora and felt guilty for not being there.  
  
"And I believe it was your man in black," Sora stood up and walked over to Taichi. "I knew him as Yukito but he had that scar."  
  
"I'm sorry I wasn't-"  
  
"Taichi, it's alright. I left because I thought my life was ruined. I didn't want to bring anyone else into my mess." She glanced at Yurika, then back at Taichi, "But she is my life."  
  
Taichi nodded, "Why are we here? Where are the others?"  
  
"I saw somebody." Yurika said and looked up at the two. "Was he 'the others'?"  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked with an edge in her voice. Yurika gave a puzzled look. "Who did you see?"  
  
"He was outside. By the door." Yurika answered and jumped up when there was a knock on the door.  
  
Sora raised her eyebrows and walked past Taichi and to the door. She opened it and looked out at the dreaded face. "Hello, Sora. Miss me?" Yukito smiled and started to walk in. Sora gasped and tried to slam the door but Yukito pushed open the door and Sora fell back with a cry.  
  
"Sora!" Taichi called as he and Yurika ran out of the bedroom.  
  
"Don't move, coward." Yukito hissed and raised his hand, paralyzing Taichi. Yurika ran to her fallen mother as Yukito grinned and picked up the girl, "Hello, daughter."  
  
"Mommy!" Yurika screeched as she struggled against the man. Sora started to get up but with a flick of Yukito's hand, she was paralyzed in antagonizing position of desperation.  
  
Yukito started through the door and looked back, "Have fun in the Mirrored World, lover."  
  
Taichi's body fell to the floor and Sora fell into darkness as she watched Yurika disappear with her cries. When Sora woke up, she was sorrounded by images of herself. At least a dozen mirrors boxed her in but only one looked like her. The others had different emotions. Happy, mad, alone. "What is this?"  
  
The Mirrored World…  
  
The voice from nowhere but everywhere drifted off. Sora turned around quickly, searching for the enigma. Her replica did the same but the other images had their own reactions. "Who are you?"  
  
The Mirror.. Mirror, Mirror on the wall, do you see at all?  
  
Sora took a deep breath, turning slowly to study each image. She nodded at the replica, the only true mirror, and it nodded back. "Why am I here?"  
  
You are here to see your life.. from each angle…  
  
"From each angle..?" Sora drifted as one of the images caught her eye. She was sitting in a corner of an empty room, staring out of the window. "What do you mean?"  
  
Each path you take leads to a different image.. What your life is.. And what your life could have been..  
  
"Where is my daughter?" Sora yelled, her anger rising quickly from the riddles. "Where is Yukito?"  
  
Oh where, oh where, could he be..  
  
The voice had a sing-song tone to it. Sora glanced around at the mirrors, trying to understand its riddles. She shook her head, "I don't understand."  
  
No, no, of course not.. Ask the questions in your mind..  
  
"Do you know why we are here?"  
  
We are here to find what we have lost..  
  
Sora took in a deep breath and stared at the real mirror. Her reflection stared back, revealing nothing. "What have we lost?"  
  
The voice did not respond.  
  
"What have we lost, mirror?" Sora asked again, the persistence in her voice never fading. "Tell me!"  
  
I cannot.. Just remember..  
  
"I don't understand a word that you are saying!" Sora screamed at the mirror. "Remember what? What am I supposed to do?"  
  
Pick a path…  
  
All but three of the mirrors dimmed and Sora turned around to three doors.  
  
Never… Did but did not.. Stayed.. Pick which path..  
  
Sora looked at the three doors, "What do you mean by that?"  
  
Pick a path you never took…  
  
"Stayed." Sora pointed at the third door and walked over to the door. She glanced back at the last mirror- the real one- and opened the door and stepped through. 


	3. Shadows and Mirrors

Taichi walked down the seemingly endless hallway of mirrors. Every few mirrors, his image would distort to a grotesque version. He couldn't imagine where he was. Or where Sora was. "Hello?"  
  
Hello...  
  
The voice was loud and everywhere but still distant and drifting like an echo. Taichi spun around and looked around wildly. "What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?"  
  
Always questions..  
  
"Answer them." Taichi hissed harshly at the nothingness, "Who are you and what is this place?"   
  
This is the Mirrored World.. I am the mirror... Mirror, mirror, on the wall, can you see her at all?  
  
Taichi gasped involuntarily and searched the voice the was there and wasn't there, "Have you seen Sora?"  
  
Searching for the lost little girl...  
  
"Her daughter?" Taichi nodded to his own question. "Where is she now?"  
  
Do you die in Odaiba, will she die, in Odaiba..  
  
"Stop!" Taichi yelled and slammed his fist against one of the distorted image. He spun around and looked at another distorted, but clear, face. It was full of pure hatred. "Speak clearly. Where is she?"  
  
Ask-a-clack-a, isk-a-click-a, esk-a-cleck-a...  
  
Taichi felt his jaw tighten and both hands forced themselves into fists, "You make no sense!"  
  
Understand, boy...  
  
"I am not a boy." Taichi growled and continued walking. He glared at each mirror. "I don't understand because you do not know anything!"  
  
I KNOW EVERYTHING, INSOLENT BOY!  
  
The mirrors sorrounding Taichi began to crack and pieces exploded around him. He ducked and covered is face with his arms. He could feel shards cut his arms and slice his clothes. "Stop! Stupid mirror!"  
  
Are we men to the gods...?  
  
Taichi struggled to focus on the mirror's voice as he fell against the floor. The noise of breaking mirrors overwhelmed every thought he had as the floor seemed to open up and swallow him into darkness.  
  
Hikari looked around as she opened her eyes. She glanced over at the girl crouched into the corner and looked puzzled, "Mimi... What are you doing?"  
  
Mimi looked at Hikari with a disturbed look and raised a shaking hand, pointing out in front of her. Hikari followed Mimi's gaze and gasped at the nightmarish scene. A crooked cross stood in the ground with a boy tied to it and a tall man stood to the side, showing only his profile. They were so familar.  
  
"You're dead.." Mimi cried and rocked back and forth. She continued to stare at the man, "You're not alive.."  
  
"I know, Mimi.." the man said in a low voice and looked towards the two girls. His face was shadowed, "And you will cause another death. Takeru's!"  
  
"Takeru!" Hikari gasped at the two, not completely understanding the absurdity of Jyou holding Takeru prisoner as a crucifix. "What's going on?"  
  
"Takeru is going to die because she killed me..!" Jyou hissed and looked at Mimi then to Takeru. The boy struggled to raise his head and his eyes pierced into Hikari's. Jyou continued to walk forward, "I want you to suffer, Mimi."  
  
"Noo!" Mimi screeched, almost inhumanly, and covered her ears. Tears rose in her eyes and fell to her cheeks. "You're not him! You can't be Jyou!"  
  
Hikari took several deep breaths to regain her thoughts but she kept glancing at the bruised and broken Takeru and remembering the Other World.  
  
Takeru held the dead girl's body in his arms, not worried about looking childish or weak for crying so freely. Hikari and Kurumi looke don. Hikari was crying but like everyone in the end, Kurumi had already lost her sympathy for the dead. "Takeru," Kurumi spoke with a new found hatred, "We have to leave or he will kill more." Takeru nodded and set the girl on the ground and stood up. Kurumi always knew what to say.  
  
Hikari shook her head and looked at Jyou who was surprisingly close. Mimi continued to wail, refusing to look at Jyou. Hikari forced herself to look into Takeru's tormentor's face and saw something that brought relief, "You aren't Jyou."  
  
Jyou smiled but that smile melted into the cruel smile of the man in black. He took a step back and shrugged, "Guess not."  
  
Mimi looked up with a look of sadness and hatred mixed on her face, "Why? Who are you...?"  
  
"I almost forgot not all of the destined children know about me!" the man in black performed a mock bow. "Please to make your aquitance. I am the destroyed of worlds, butcher of the innocent," he paused then added with a manic grin, "tormentor of the hopeful."  
  
"Bastard." Hikari hissed at the man as he seemed to bounce back to the cross. "You kill people like they are flies with no regard to human life!"  
  
The man in black turned around, "You call those mutants on the Other World humans? I did not kill Koushiro and Kurumi. The ones they trusted did. Like that whimpering thing in that corner killed the man who loved her."  
  
"What about Li and Tsuki?" Hikari asked quietly, preparing herself whatever may come next. "You killed your twin brother."  
  
"Shut up!" the man in black screamed and pulled out a knife. He turned to Takeru and smiled, "You can suffer for her."  
  
"What are you doing?" Hikari called and stood up. She took several unsteady steps. "What are you going to do!?"  
  
The man in black took a step back and held the knife in a fist. He glanced back at the two girls before plunging the knife into Takeru's chest. The boy let out a painful cry. Hikari's eyes went wide as she screamed, all of the once-lost feelings returning, "Takeru!"  
  
The man in black turned around, pulling the knife out with a sickening noise. He grinned and threw the knife with expert ease at Hikari. The girl gasped as it stabbed into her side.  
  
Mimi's hysteric cries faded out and all of the noises seemed to be far away. The cross first went gray then blurry and then black as she fell to the floor. 


	4. Before Death

Yamato looked around at the dark world around him and listened. It was so quiet, almost completely silent. Where at the others, he wondered. He looked behind him and saw a wall of newspaper articles. Yamato walked over and started to read a few of the headlines- "Terrorist Attack Destroys Bridge... Electronics Fail... Local Band Tours America... What is this?"  
  
"It's your life, silly," a voice said from behind the wall and a girl stepped into view. She was wearing a short yet elegant Chinese-style dress. She grinned and pointed to one of the articles, "Two Boys Murdered in Odaiba. Those are you friends."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Yamato hissed and studied the girl. Her left ankle had a black-beaded bracelet around it and her feet were bare.   
  
"Koushiro and Jyou," she whispered, "Murdered by who you call the man in black."  
  
"Who are you?" Yamato asked, more harshly than he intended.  
  
The girl just smiled, not taken aback by his tone or his anger, "My name is Sakura and I am what some would call a genie. I like to call myself a vagabond."  
  
"You're a genie?" Yamato paused, trying to comprehend the situation. He tried to remember any childhood stories that were about genies but remembered one detail. Three wishes. "You grant wishes?"  
  
"In a way.. My master is the one who holds the jewel to my bracelet and they have control of my powers. I do what they want but they don't need to wish it. Trois souhaits, I think not. Understand?" Sakura looked at Yamato's somewhat blank face and continued, "If someone gets my jewel, they have complete control. No wishes."  
  
Yamato nodded and looked around the dimness. It seemed like they were in a haze. "Where are we?"  
  
"The Dark World. The world before death. Where the dying are tormented and where the truth is never false." Sakura answered and waved her hand, "You have seen many worlds but not nearly all of them."  
  
"What do you mean?" Yamato inquired of the genie. He didn't see anyone here, not living or dying.  
  
"The man in black is destined to destroy all of the worlds unless you and your friends can stop him." Sakura whispered and looked away, "He caused everyone to lose their crests because that was the only way he could kill you."  
  
"Our crests?" Yamato hadn't thought about his crest since the last adventure. Friendship. His was always a joke. "I don't understand."  
  
"He has done something to all of you to make you believe you don't deserve your crests." Sakura paused and grinned slightly, "To think they are a joke."  
  
Yamato narrowed his eyes at the girl, "You can read thoughts?"  
  
"Just one of my many powers," Sakura answered and looked at the wall. She looked back at Yamato with desperate eyes, "Just as Yukito is destined to destroy the worlds. You, Yamato, are destined to save the worlds. Please, save the worlds for me. Destroy the man in black and save me."  
  
Yamato nodded and looked at the girl. He couldn't begin to think of words for a request like that. Sakura smiled and gave Yamato a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you..."  
  
Before Yamato could respond to the girl, she gasped and crouched down in anger and pain. He looked at her with worried eyes, "What's going on!?"  
  
"He's calling me back. Please, promise me that you'll destroy him no matter what!" Sakura looked up at Yamato with what seemed to be pure black eyes.  
  
"I promise." Yamato responded. Sakura lowered her head and she was gone. Nothing fancy, no cloud of smoke, she was just gone. "I promise." 


	5. Their Missing Wounds

Hikari opened her eyes and gasped. She looked down at her wound but there wasn't one. "What happened? Was that just a dream?"  
  
"No, we're dead." Takeru's voice echoed in the dark empty place. He looked down at his own missing wound. "Just like everyone."  
  
"Takeru!" Hikari scolded and looked at him- seeing the changes that she never saw before. He seemed much older. Too old. He wasn't the same as any of the times before. Not the same little boy she met and who promised never to leave her when they were alone. Not the same boy who grew up yet still was the same little boy. Not the same as when he went to the Other World, for the first time, for the second time, or for the last time. She has no idea what had happened after he left the Other World, "Where have you been?"  
  
"Pretty much dead." Takeru answered and looked away from the girl. "After seeing all those people die, all those innocent people die just for being different, I guess I couldn't handle life. I have been in a hospital ever since I left the Other World."  
  
"A hospital?" Hikari regretted asking as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She knew what kind of hospital. She knew because every day she was in the Other World, she felt like she was going crazy. As Kurumi had said once, 'It's hard to be sorrounded by thousands and somehow see everyone you meet die. It's hard and it makes you wonder if this is just a horrible nightmare.' "I'm sorry, Takeru."  
  
"The man in black had me on that cross for a couple of days and he kept saying how all of my friends died and I should give up on a rescue," Takeru paused and looked towards Hikari but not at her. "I think I did. Until I saw you."  
  
Hikari looked away and glanced at the dark place. She could make out skeletons, some human, some not, all around her. "I understand. After being in the Other World for so long and watching children die for playing and husbands killed for protecting their families and watching Kurumi died because of me, I thought the whole world was just a dark place of death."  
  
Takeru let out a surprising, but welcomed, laugh, "We both try to run from life because we thought it was death. And look at where we are now."  
  
Hikari smiled at hearing Takeru's laugh and even at the morbid anecdote. She laid down on the cold ground and closed her eyes. "What are we going to do, Takeru?"  
  
Takeru sat behind Hikari and put his hand on Hikari's shoulder with an embarressed jerky motion, "I don't know, Hikari, I've never been dead before."  
  
Hikari smiled faintly at Takeru. He had always been able to cheer her up and make her feel sake. She felt herself falling to sleep and the darkness felt closer than ever before.  
  
A/N: Let me explain.. I had planned to have Hikari and Takeru live and be together at the end of the story but somehow, without my planning, I had killed them off. I'm sorry. 


	6. Frozen Hourglasses

Sora walked through the door into what looked like a desert. The entire landscape was rolling hills of sand stretching until they disappeared from this world. It was bare and empty. Sora turned around to go back through the door but it was gone. In place, she saw two familar figures, "Yamato! Taichi!"  
  
Yamato looked up from sitting on the sand and looked over at Taichi, who looked up, revealing the wounds on his arms and face. Sora gasped. "Taichi! What happened? Was it Yuk-?"  
  
Taichi shook his head with effort and took a deep breath, "I was in this world of mirrors. The Mirrored World. And the mirrors exploded and cut me. Where were you?"  
  
"First, I was in that Mirrored World and I had to pick the path I didn't take." Sora sat down on her knees and lowered her voice, "I stayed. It showed me what would have happened if I stayed in Odaiba."  
  
"What do you mean?" Taichi asked. "If you stayed in Odaiba with Yurika?"  
  
"Yes.." Sora nodded and tears rose up in her eyes.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt but what are you talking about?" Yamato asked, looking guilty for listening when he wasn't even two feet away. Yamato remembered that Sora had broken up with him and started going out with some other guy. He didn't talk to her and didn't find out that she was even gone until the Other World. "Sora, what's going on?"  
  
"I have something to tell you, Yamato." Sora whispered and looked down at the sand that moved beneath her palms. "I left Odaiba because I moved to Kyoto. To take care of my daughter- Yurika."  
  
"What?" Yamato gasped and looked at the girl. "You have a daughter?"  
  
"Yes, I'm sorry that I left and never told you but I thought you hated me after what I did to you." Sora saw the tears hit the sand. The sand soaked up the water and the damp spot disappeared in the sun.  
  
"Who is the father?" Yamato asked and glanced at Taichi who stared at the wounds on his hands. Yamato looked back at Sora who finally looked up.  
  
"The man in black. Yukito." Sora looked away, as if she was ashamed by the fact that she let an unknown murderer touch her, let him tell her that he loved her, and let him take her life.  
  
Yamato opened his mouth to say something but a female voice interrupted him from behind, "Yamato! I'm sorry but I had to tell him."  
  
Yamato, Taichi, and Sora turned their heads in surprise to see the girl in the Chinese dress. "Sakura, what are you doing here? And what are you talking about?"  
  
Sakura bowed her head, "I had to come and warn you. He knows I talked to you. He'll be here."  
  
"Who are you?" Sora asked and glanced between Yamato and Sakura.  
  
"Cliffnotes version. My name is Sakura. I am a genie. I am being controlled by the man in black." Sakura said, quickly, almost stumbling over words. She looked at the three, "Are you all that is left?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Taichi asked and looked up, "Where is Hikari?"  
  
Sakura lowered her eyes, "He killed them. I'm so sorry but he had taken your brother and they're both dead."  
  
"Hikari and," Taichi paused. "Takeru?"  
  
"Yes." Sakura replied and looked up with a wide-eyed expression. "He's here."  
  
Yukito stepped out from Sakura with ease. The girl fell back and looked up at the man. He smiled at the three friends and grinned his demented grin, "Five down. Three to go."  
  
"You killed Mimi?" Sora asked in harsh and surprised voice and glared at the man.  
  
"Not before some fun." Yukito continued to grin. He waved his hand at the desert. "I never guessed that there were other worlds besides Earth before I was twelve. I went to the Other World and it occured to me that I could kill people and never be a murderer as long as I didn't do it directly. All those innocent people we were meant to save just fell into the way of that falling rock or fell into the ice and I just couldn't reach her."  
  
"You stupid bastard." Sora hissed and looked away from Yukito and his story.  
  
He acted as if he didn't hear her and continued, "But the others started to realize something was wrong and that's when they attacked me. I left the Other World but somehow I had to kill them. Killing Li was easier than I thought it would be. Tsuki, on the other hand, wasn't. Do you know how hard it is to just miss pulling your twin brother away from that speeding car?"  
  
"Shut up, you fucking murderer." Yamato hissed.  
  
Again, the words didn't phase Yukito. "Killing all of the destined children will be fun."  
  
Sakura stood up as if she was puppet on strings. Yukito placed his hands together and Sakura, with a stricken look on her face, mimicked the man. He grinned as Sora was pulled down into the sand with a voiceless gasp.  
  
"Sora!" Taichi and Yamato both cried and looked at the spot where she had been. There were no clues to where she went.  
  
"Don't look down there," Yukito giggled. "She's right here."  
  
With the genie mimicking Yukito's motions, a hour glass appeared with Sora on the bottom, pounding against the glass, and frozen sand at the top. With a simple flick, the sand began to pour down on the girl, slowly but steadily. Sora looked up at the sand, then at the glass blocking her from everyone else, and continued to slam her fists on the unflinching glass.  
  
Yukito made a mock frown at Sora and turned to the two boys, "You have two choices. Save your friend and her daughter by giving up your lives. Or kill them by trying to fight me. That hour glass will be filled in about ten minutes. Choose quickly." 


	7. Throwing It Away

Yamato looked at Taichi, at Sakura, at Taichi, and whispered, "Save Sora and her daughter."  
  
Taichi looked at Yamato with a puzzled look. He couldn't begin to imagine what he was going to do, "Yamato, we can save Sora and Yurika. Together. You don't have to go on some suicidal mission."  
  
"I do." Yamato persisted. "It is all my fault that everyone is dead and Yukito is still alive. It's my fault and I need to stop allowing people to die! We have about eight minutes to save her and arguing with me is just going to kill her."  
  
"But-"  
  
"You will do what I say or Sora and Yurika will die!" Yamato hissed. He looked down at the ground. "Look, he killed Takeru because I couldn't protect him. He killed everyone and it's my fault. Don't let Sora die because of me."  
  
"I don't und-"  
  
"Just break that hourglass!" Yamato said harshly and turned toward to look at Yukito and Sakura. He noticed that Yukito had a black jewel for an earring as he smiled, calculating every one of Yamato's and Taichi's moves.  
  
Taichi nodded and took a few steps backwards before turning around and searching the desert for anything he could use. He glanced back at the hourglass, the sand up to Sora's knees. She was crying and hitting the glass.  
  
Yamato nodded at Yukito and rushed the man. The two fell over without a sound on the sand. Sakura gasped and fell backwards onto the sand, staring at the two. Yamato and Yukito continued to struggle, rolling in the sand and Sakura watched as a few drops of blood fell onto the sand and dried up.   
  
Taichi grabbed a rock and ran over to the hourglass. He glanced at the two wrestling on the sand before hitting the glass with the rock, bringing only a small crack to the surface. "Damn it!"  
  
"Too late, Yamato." Yukito hissed and swung his hand towards the hourglass, hitting Yamato in the motion. The sand immediately fell to the bottom, covering Sora. He grinned as he stood up.  
  
"Sora!" Taichi screamed and continue to hit the rock against the surface, allowing a few handfuls of sand escape their coffin.  
  
Yamato grinned as he sat up on the sand and held up a black jewel. Yukito gasped and threw his hand up to his ear and as he brought it down, he saw the blood covering his fingers. "What the-?"  
  
"Catch." Yamato yelled as he tossed the jewel to Sakura, who was no longer in the daze. Sakura threw up one hand and caught the jewel with ease and a smile. "Sorry, Yukito. You're dead."With those words, Yamato stood up and rushed Yukito in one liquid motion. The other man pulled out his blood-stained dagger and threw it into Yamato's chest. Yamato stumbled backwards as Sakura screamed.  
  
Yukito grinned as Yamato struggled to pull the dagger out. "You are always too late to save anyone, Yamato Ishida."  
  
"Not this time." Yamato growled and held the dagger in his hand as he fell towards Yukito. The two dropped onto the ground- Yamato on top of Yukito, both covered in wounds and blood.  
  
Sakura gasped as she ran over to the two. She helped Yamato off of the man, whose eyes were frozen in the only fear he had ever felt, and the dagger stuck out from his chest as a morbid trophy. "Yamato, tell me you're alright. Yamato!"  
  
Taichi broke the glass and the sand spilled out, knocking him over. He pushed his way through the sand to find the girl, ignoring the scene of death behind him. Taichi pulled Sora from the grave of sand and looked into her wide eyes. "Sora!"  
  
"Taichi?" Sora smiled and coughed. She tried to wipe the sand from around her eyes and she hugged Taichi. "What is going on?"  
  
Sora looked at the scene- Yukito dead, Yamato on the ground with that girl, Sakura, crying. What was going on, she thought more descively. "What's going on, Taichi?!"  
  
Taichi glanced back at the scene, knowing that Yamato was dead and there was nothing to do. There was nothing he could do. There was never nothing he could ever do. 


	8. Final Delusions

"Mrs. Takaishi, your son has been having these delusions for almost ten years. I know you wanted him to try to come out of this state naturally but I believe it will benefit him, and you, to try a new therapy." Dr. Yamamoto said and looked down at the papers. "Especially with his most recent delusion."  
  
"What was it?" Mrs. Takaishi asked with undeniable worry in her voice. "What did he say?"  
  
"He believes he's been killed." Dr. Yamamoto sighed and shuffled the papers. "If he believes this for too long, he could go into a comatose state."  
  
The woman gasped and brought her hand to her mouth, "Would he ever wake up?"  
  
Dr. Yamamoto shook his head, "I don't believe so. His mind would believe he is dead. The only reason why he is still awake is because this last delusion has to be finished."  
  
"What is this delusion? Does it have to do with that 'Digital World' and him being destined?" Mrs. Takaishi spatted. The Digital world had plagued her son for years and she had grown to hate the imaginary world.  
  
"Yes, but only two of those 'destined' children are alive in his delusion." the doctor glanced down at his scribbled shorthand notes, "Taichi and Sora.Do you have any idea why he would keep those two alive in his mind?"  
  
Mrs. Takaishi shook her head. She had become so familar with these characters in her son's mind that they could be anyone walking down the street. They were so real. "I don't understand any of it."  
  
"I think, since it was after you divorced your first husband and remarried, he felt abandoned and left out, and that is why he creates all of these worlds." Dr. Yamamote concluded and sighed.  
  
"But why these people? Why did he create a brother?" Mrs. Takaishi asked. "Why..?"  
  
"Mrs. Takaishi, I do not know why he created these worlds or why he has killed all but two, including himself, but I do know that your son is in trouble." Dr. Yamamoto held out a pen and paper to Mrs. Takaishi, "You just have to sign for this therapy and you can have your son back."  
  
Mrs. Takaishi nodded and grabbed the items. She slowly signed her name on the line and looked at the paper, knowing this could bring back her son. 


	9. Images of Nothing

It's been three years since the final fight with Yukito. The boy we kknew as the man in balck. Three years since Hikari came back from the Other World just to be killed by that awful man. He believed he was destined to destroy all of the worlds and the people who were destined to stop him.  
  
In a way, he did succeed. He killed all of us but Sora and I. And Hana but I have no idea where she is. Sora and Yurika stayed in Kyoto and I stayed in Tokyo. The last time I saw her was at Yamato's funeral but we didn't speak much. Too much had happened for casual conversation to be remotely possible.  
  
I'm sure after seeing her ex-boyfriend killed by the father of her daughter who almost killed her daughter and tried to drown her in a sea of sand, she couldn't think about how the weather was. I know I couldn't. After knowing I couldn't save my little sister and after being attacked by those mirrors, I couldn't look in the mirror- for more than one reason. I knew that it was my reason that everyone was dead. I knew that if I would have stayed in the Other World and made everyone else stay, we could have killed Yukito. Kurumi, Hikari, and Takeru wouldn't had to die because they were the only ones who believed in the population of the Other World.  
  
The second reason was that my face was scarred and somehow it symbolized everything. I had to suffer these scars for each one of my friends who died. Maybe someday I will find Hana and tell her that Koushiro died because of me. Maybe someday I will tell Hana that I am sorry I never got to play Uno with her. Or maybe someday, I'll find Sora.  
  
I wonder what it would be like if Sora and I stayed together. I imagine Sora and I at the park, pushing Yurika on the swing. I imagine myself kissing Sora's belly, waiting for our first child and trying to pick out a name. I imagine Yurika almost finished with high shcool as Yukimi starts high school. I imagine Yurika and Yukimi going to top universities, getting married, and living happily ever after.  
  
Then I imagine nothing.  
  
Author's Note: Thank you for finishing Dementia. 


End file.
